Random musings on history, politics, and more

Archive for March 17th, 2010

Wikileaks, the increasingly irrelevant, un-transparent, un-accountable, and un-trustworthy “whistleblowing” website that has grabbed so many headlines in recent years is up to their usual mildly embarrassing tricks again, willfully misrepresenting an (American military) document as something substantially more nefarious and sinister than it truly is.

You can read more about the latest idiocy on the part of Mr. Julian Assange over at the wikileak.org website, which has a pretty good look at the supposed plan to “destroy” Wikileaks.

Assange claims the United States Army is trying to “fatally marginalize” Wikileaks by destroying its web of “trust” online. I have to wonder, in truth, whether he really believes that, or if he’s attention-whoring at the expense of principles again. From this side of the mirror, dear Alice, it looks like all the marginalization and destruction of trust are the work not of the NSA or CIA or FBI or ODNI or MI6, but Mr. Assange and Mr. Assange alone.

Indeed, I for one find it extremely amusing that Assange has engaged and continues to engage in exactly the same (highly deceptive) tactics that he finds so unbelievably onerous and objectionable when used by governments and (“corporate”) media outlets.

Wikileaks was, once upon a time, a grand and interesting experiment in anonymous communication and collaboration. Julian Assange, however, has euthanized that experiment and turned the site into an infrequently-updated personal blog with no transparency or accountability… not even a (moderated, natch) comment system. And, implausible as it might seem, he’s raised – or claims to have raised, rather! – over a quarter million dollars in the process, albeit from people who – one presumes – wanted something rather different.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks and “The Sunshine Press” (all of which I basically consider to be synonymous, at this point in time) have lost any moral high ground they may have ever had, as far as I’m concerned. They’ve become, really, no better than the evildoers they once supposedly existed to expose… and they’ve raised rather a tidy sum of money by doing so, as well. Viva el capitalismo, eh Julian?